Light control grids for photographer's soft boxes typically are formed of rigid grids or honeycombs that guide the light from the soft box. The inventor has found that these rigid devices are expensive and difficult to store and use, and therefore came up with the very clever idea of making the grid from flexible fabric. This was not an obvious solution to the problem that the inventor identified since it was not immediately apparent that the grid would work satisfactorily, and in any event the inventor is unaware of uses of fabric grids despite over 30 years of the use of rigid grids.
In addition, the inventor found a remarkable manner of making the grid, namely by using intersecting and interlocking strips of fabric, formed in two sets, strips of one set intersecting the strips of the other set. The strips of intersecting sets are slotted in a complimentary manner. A wire may be used to keep the grid taut if necessary, as for example in larger soft boxes having dimensions greater than about 2 by 3 feet. In some instances, strips of one set may be omitted, such that the grid is formed only of strips extending in one direction. Reflecting material such as gold or silver may be placed on inside edges of peripheral strips to guide the light and to create a warmer more intense quality of light for the photographer.
The general effect of the grid in use is that desirable large light source characteristics can be maintained while at the same time extraneous spread of side light can be controlled. The flexible fabric allows the grid to be made less expensively and easier to transport than rigid grids.